The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has received 95 expressions of interest from international energy companies for the third phase of its Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park.

In September, DEWA put out the tender request for the 800MW project, which is currently being built in the Seih Al Dahal area of Dubai.

The project is based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. The 200MW second phase was awarded to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Spain’s Grupo TSK. It is anticipated that the third phase will be broken up and awarded to several bidders.

DEWA is now preparing Request for Qualification (RFQ) documents for the third phase, which is expected to be released by November. Meanwhile the full tender is expected to be released before 2016.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive of DEWA, said the park's capacity will eventually reach 3GW by 2030.

He added: “DEWA has proved its flexibility to meet updates in the energy sector based on its success in getting the cheapest international price for solar power, at US$ 5.4 cents per kilowatt hour. We increased the targeted energy mix for renewable energy target in the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 from 1% to 7% by 2020 and from 5% to 15% by 2030.”

Al Tayer said the second 200MW project will be ready by April 2017.

Once complete the park will include a museum for solar and include an R&D centre including one section for PV and another for CSP testing.